handmade rag/ waldorf inspired dolls & quilts by mom

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Before the 2013 kicks into gear allow me to take this time to sit back with an over priced room service coffee and do my business plan for 2013. Yep, Business plan the later part of 2012 made me really think about imhandmade as a business and to start treating it like one. This way I don’t wear my self down while pushing it forward.

As the last days of 2012 rolled into a close. I had some opportunities to get excited with the business and find inspirations even without looking. Inspiration is key your business is handmade.

Without boring you allow me to share with you my breakdown for Imhandmade for 2013. More or less.

1. The business is only secondary to time with Carlo. I already have a day job that takes me away from him. So I need to find a way to balance my time. Can there be more hours in a day??

The little one at work with mom

2. Taking ques from a newly renovated home of my tita for her Apo. I need to create the workroom/sewing room into a space that Carlo can play in or beside me. So that even if I am sewing away in the weekend it still feels like we are together…. Renovation time 🙂

3. Don’t procrastinate over things too long…just keep on creating. Taking ques from my dear friend who is behind TAKATAK PROJECT. Her Spring 2013 collection will be ready for selling soon. She worked on them during the holidays. She also did all her branding and collateral already. And yes you can always change things, that’s the beauty of Handmade.

4. Take inspiration where you can find it.

5. Play more with printed fabrics.

6. I should not get intimidated and just go out there and do it. I also need to value my work more.

This dolls below are the Adorable collection in Rustan’s. The dolls are beautifully crafted but are also extremely expensive. More like a show piece and not a toy. I need to re-think the over all packaging and look of my dolls and take it to the next level.

Excited yet! AS for me I am. Hopefully my next post will be pictures or the new dolls taking shape.

My First Etsy sale. I jumped, pinch myself and gave out a loud yepiee when i received Sydney”s conversation in Etsy. After the initial shock i went right to work on her doll.

Meet Sydney’s doll. She bought this doll for a child she is sponsoring in my country. Its an animal rag doll which i had to make a new one as the batch i made before was only 4 pcs and all got sold out.

In our city their is an ordinance where you only can shop with paper bags. Either you have your own eco bag or the store gives you a paper bag. Since then my paper bags at home have been piling up. Now that’s Christmas is just around the corners and most of my gifts came from Tokyo (hence now wrapper or shop bag in tow) I knew I’ll need something different.

So with my little son in tow we crafted our own wrappers using the paper bags, stamps I made and some washi tapes I got from Hey Kessy. (Washi tapes is from a company in Japan called MT. Washi tapes are basically paper masking tape that is slightly translucent and that gives its unique feature. It comes in a whole lot of prints keeping in mind the minimalist design element that’s very Japanese)

After an after work before dinner activity wa-la we now have wrappers.

I finished off (while the baby now sleeps) the wrapper using my typewritter font stamps for the name of the receiver. Of course I indicated in each bag that Carlo stamped it.

Here it’s not that known, so when I met this girl at the Etsy craft party and she was asking if I can make custom made stuff, I just feel in love with her when she brought up DR. Who. At first she was just thinking of me making the Dr. But when I mentioned the Weeping Angel we bought we like YES.

So the project began like any other but ended up to be on of the most tedious projects I’ve made. Why? well for starters I wasn’t satisfied on just simply using gray cloth. I needed the doll to look a little more solid, stone like but still soft as in the end its still a doll. My solution, wrap the entire body in yarn.

Then there was the case of the wings, I started with cloth which again I didn’t like. In the end I was up until 3am crocheting.

Then the hair. It had to look like a statue hair. But still again its a doll. So I spooled hair and braided, twist and sewn in place.

I now have to tell my self to let go and ship it. I loved this project! I am now hoping someone will ask me to make them another one. 🙂

Am Glad there are mom’s out there who are want to share handmade toys to their little ones. And to date I’ve met several that has kept my nights, wee hours in between night and day, and weekends busy. Not complaining it’s a happy problem.

I just get so nervous thou when I finish a project and ship the doll. I get nervous they won’t like it. Not to mention its their Christmas gift for their little princess. I do hope the child goes yehey! instead of “ha? where’s the real gift?”

Here’s what I’ve been making so far.

A yellow dollie for a yellow lady. A specific request of yellow on yellow.

Remember last time I taught doll making in Bungalow 300 a little furniture store i so love. About 2 weekends ago I was at Craft MNL Head quarters for my second and last round of doll making workshop. I had fewer students than the previous class so I had enough time really seat down and chat with them. Best of all have a cup of coffee while teaching.

Here are my students and their lovely works 🙂

A world religion teacher from Beacon international School. It was a delight chatting with her.

This mom makes doll. She made this lovely green dress doll. And she just followed the pattern online.

This student wanted an anime doll

She’s a law student who was wanted a funky hair doll. And she was quiet but finished fast.

my afternoon class ladies both wanted red hair. Thank heavens I had more than 2 spools in the basket. Cheers red hair dollies

Look at my students all hard at work making their dolls. Thank you to all of you who spend their Sunday with me.

When my cousin whom I have not seen for 5 years came to visit from down under. All I can think off was to have a crafty afternoon. I called CRAFT MNL to see if they had anything scheduled that day but turned out there was nothing. So with improvised materials in tow. I taught them how to make rubber stamps using erasers instead.

So with Mary Grace Sangria drink fueling us and sweet treats we crafted away.

They both liked it. And it was a much needed break from all the mall shopping they were doing the past 2 days.

Forgive the wordless post as I am frantically sewing for this weekend Advent Fair at my son’s school.

Last saturday I was at Sta. Elna Balik Bukid Fair. It was my 1st fair out side the comforts of Alabama, i had my reservations but in the end had so much fun. It was great to share with people who knew what the dolls were and loved it instantly. I need not explain or had to say much. They also truly appreciated the work put into the dolls.

Some even just stop by to see and ask, some to buy while others insisted I start selling doll clothes for the ones they bought. Even thou I frantically finished my last custom made doll for the day with just my husband’s phone light shining to help me, and hardly had any time to go around. It was so much fun.